From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

Investors love a good gold debate.

"Is it a commodity, or is it a currency?"

I’d argue it's both.

But, today, I want to focus on gold as a currency in light of a series of new all-time highs versus fiat overseas.

The Junior Gold Miners appear to be temporarily stuck in the rocks. And with juicy options premiums to sell, we will take advantage of the range with a delta-neutral credit spread.

We've adjusted a position in the Paid-to-Play portfolio today:

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

Investors love a good gold debate.

“Is it a commodity, or is it a currency?”

I’d argue it’s both.

But, today, I want to focus on gold as a currency in light of a series of new all-time highs versus fiat overseas.

Gold priced in euro terms closed last week at its highest level in history.

The new all-time highs follow a breakout from an 18-month consolidation within an ongoing uptrend – an uptrend that commenced in March 2020.

I expect another leg higher for gold priced in the euro and the British pound. 

Check out gold versus the pound:

Gold priced in GBP resembles the gold/EUR chart, just not as clean.

Gold completed a decade-long base versus the pound in the spring of 2020. And like gold priced in US dollars, it consolidated for over two years.

The main difference: Gold priced in USD continues to contend with overhead supply while the path of least resistance leads higher for gold priced in British pounds.

It’s the same story for the Japanese yen.

Before you start throwing tomatoes, here’s what’s not making new highs versus...

From the Desk of Steve Strazza and Alfonso Depablos

Today’s most significant insider transaction is another Form 4 filing by the executive vice president and CFO of M&T Bank Corporation $MTB, who announced a purchase worth $555,217.

The same MTB executive reported an MTB purchase in early June worth approximately $1.2 million.

This is the weekly post that aggregates all the charts we put together throughout the week and organizes them all into one, easy to flip through deck.

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

Everywhere you look, commodities argue a strong case for the next supercycle.  

Live cattle, feeder cattle, sugar, cocoa, and orange juice are all amid historic rallies. Even gold’s resilience in an environment where it should struggle speaks to an underlying demand for raw materials.     

Well, perhaps not everywhere…

While orange juice busts loose on a parabolic advance and cocoa rips toward all-time highs, copper futures barely exceed their year-to-date lows.

On the bright side, it stopped falling.

Check out copper digging in at key pivot lows from earlier this spring:

I see a potential double-bottom taking shape.

Yes, it’s still trading below a multi-month downtrend line. Yes, momentum...

From the Desk of Ian Culley @IanCulley

It’s beginning to feel an awful lot like 2022.

Rates and the dollar are on pause, bonds can’t stop falling, and the major equity indexes are violating critical support levels.

But the 2s10s spread raised serious questions this week as it hit fresh 52-week highs. 

So, is the market environment changing?

Let’s find out…

Check out the 2s10s spread challenging zero from below:

An inverted yield curve (widely measured by the 2s10s and 3mo.-10yr. spreads) has cast a pall over capital markets, promising an economic recession for over a year. Yet the US economy remains strong.

The curve is now flattening to levels not witnessed since the summer of 2022.

Perhaps it will continue to steepen in the coming months. On the other hand, this could be nothing more...

From the desk of Steve Strazza @Sstrazza

Our International Hall of Famers list is composed of the 100 largest US-listed international stocks, or ADRs.

We've also sprinkled in some of the largest ADRs from countries that did not make the market cap cut. 

These stocks range from some well-known mega-cap multinationals such as Toyota Motor and Royal Dutch Shell to some large-cap global disruptors such as Sea Ltd and Shopify.

It's got all the big names and more–but only those that are based outside the US. You can find all the largest US stocks on our original Hall of Famers list.

The beauty of these scans is really in their simplicity.

We take the largest names each week and then apply technical filters in a way that the strongest stocks with the most momentum rise to the top.

Based on the market environment, we can also flip the scan on its head and filter for weakness.

Let's dive in and take a look at some of the most important stocks from around the world.

Here's this week's list:

...

If/when the market can find it's footing, today's trade is in a name that I'd like to get aggressively bullish in for a long-term bet.

In the meantime, I'm not ready to be aggressive yet, but there is an opportunity for us to get paid to wait with a conservatively bullish bet that gives us room to be wrong.

We've adjusted a position in the Paid-to-Play portfolio today:

From the Desk of Steve Strazza and Alfonso Depablos

Today’s list is a short one.

A director of Five Star Bancorp $FSBC revealed a purchase of $101,019 in its latest Form 4.